Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse [2023]
“Let's do things differently this time.”
Just over a year ago I reviewed the spectacular Everything Everywhere All at Once and said,
“I don’t know that there’s ever been a film quite like this one.”
Now, June 24, 2023, I’m going to say it again. I don’t know that there’s ever been a film quite like this one.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is one of the most incredible animated films ever made, and easily one of my favorite movies of the year. It’s a difficult thing to do, improving on near perfection, but Across has somehow managed to up the stakes, the ante, and the performance of its already astonishing predecessor.
In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse we follow Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales as they fight to uphold the coherency of both the multiverse and their own personal lives. Aided by a staggering and impressive cast of characters, will they be able to maintain the underlying foundations of everything that exists without sacrificing themselves?
Many animated films are animated for… reasons. They just sort of are animated. Even greats like Monsters Inc., Turning Red, and Soul don’t really use the medium for anything other than the fact that it exists. Each of those stories could have been told in different settings, with live actors, and hand-built sets without sacrificing much of their identity. The first film in this series [Into the Spider-Verse] pushed the bounds of animated storytelling to places that it had almost never been taken before. The sense of style, motion, and action that film was able to portray should have changed the face of the animated film forever. In its wake, Across the Spider-Verse has managed to not only continue to change the way that we see animated film, but improve upon an already astonishing formula. No film has ever had such an eclectic gathering of styles, forms, and techniques all on screen at the same time. Additionally, no film that has tried to do that has done so with anywhere near the success of Across. The ability to create something like Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is the reason that animated films matter. This accomplishment, and the things that I hope it spawns, are the reason this medium needs to exist. It isn’t simply an easy delivery method for children’s stories or a way to write something meaningful and deep, but wrap it up inside an easy to look at package.
It is an artform, and no one has ever utilized it the way that the team behind this film has.
While I have my minor qualms with some of the storytelling [the selective functionality of “spidey-sense” for instance], they are minor and don’t take away from the extraordinary whole of the film. Performances are great across the board, the narrative is meaningful, interesting, and clever, and each of the myriad characters they introduce are engaging and unique without feeling out of place or contrived. Similar to the first film in the series, Across maintains its masterful grasp on something most animated films fail at almost entirely: Cinematography.
Scenes are well framed, feature incredible use of color, masterful placement of comic book-style panels, and manage to convey exactly the weight they intend; whether the context be emotional or action oriented. This is a film that will be studied by both art and film students alike for decades to come. There’s a “complete” quality to the world of Across that is rarely felt in the realm of animated film, one that is conveyed almost entirely through the unique and coherent way each of the locations we visit fit together, and yet exist wholly apart from everything else. This comes down not only to the stunning artistry behind each of the styles present in the locations and characters, but the way those same talents have framed that artistry. There are almost no scenes within the film’s entire 2-hour and 15-minute runtime that aren’t worthy of being hung in a gallery.
No stone is left unturned in Across, however, and the score to the film is absolutely tremendous as well. Similar to its predecessor, few films walk the line between “soundtrack” and “score” quite like these do. An exceptionally masterful blend of songs and original music move, invigorate, and inspire us as the action on screen fades from fast to slow to soft to rabid.
I know I keep saying it, but this film is absolutely beautiful.
My biggest complaint is one that may be a bit spoilery, but something I knew going in and didn’t change my experience in the slightest. So, here it is:
This is very much a “part 1”, despite not being marketed that way, and I think the producers should have labeled it as such. It just feels a little deceptive. That said… I also think this is one of the film’s most interesting strengths.
We all know about “second movie syndrome”. The first film sets up the world, takes us on an adventure, then promises “even more!” as a way of drawing us back for the sequel. The second film can’t repeat the same formula, so it does everything it can to set up an even bigger and better third installment. This often leaves second movies flat, incomplete, and lacking, if not entirely forgettable and indistinguishable as unique entities outside of what they do either because of the first film or for the third [Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest anyone?]. Additionally, stories that act as “part 1” of something larger can often feel incomplete for similar reasons – 2021’s Dune feels almost entirely lacking without it’s 2023 counterpart that I hope turns it into the scifi epic it deserves to be. Across is very much a “part 1”, to the point that it should have been in the title… but it doesn’t feel like a “part 1”. It feels complete and entirely full; like the already titled sequel, Beyond the Spider-Verse, will simply expand upon, and branch off of, this adventure, rather than turn it into a shadow.
We’re used to a certain formula from Marvel specifically, and hero films in general. Across breaks that formula entirely and gives us a spectacular drama about people who happen to have powers, rather than an action movie that features characters with powers. There’s something very special happening in the world of animated film right now. In 2021 we got the subtle and moving Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, in 2022 the most narratively important animated film of the last 20-years released in Turning Red, and, now, in 2023 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has redefined what animated film can, should, and will continue to be. Nothing has ever looked, felt, moved, lived, or breathed quite like this extraordinary animated adventure… and I cannot wait for what the future of this series holds.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is sure to win the “Best Animated Film” Oscar this year, and will almost certainly even be nominated for “Best Picture” as well. This is not one you should let slip you by even if animated movies are “not your thing”. This is not a movie, it’s hardly even a film…
This is art.
“Everyone keeps telling me how MY story is supposed to go! Naw. I'm gonna do my own thing.”
